Band-structure-dependent transport and impact ionization in GaAs

Shichijo, H.; Hess, K.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.23.4197

Cited by 291 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The impact ionization rate is found to be an explicit function of the k vector of the ionizing carrier, with carriers at the same energy but different k vectors generally having widely varying rates. However, in a high field device carriers are likely to be spread throughout the Brillouin zone by phonon scattering, 7,13 with different k states at the same energy having approximately equal probabilities of being filled. Under these conditions, the rate of ionization which is normally an explicit function of the k vector, R(k), can be characterized by a function of energy alone…”

Section: Influence Of Anisotropy On Threshold Softnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Simple impact ionization models, such as that of Keldysh 25 which is based on algebraically defined band structure and has been used extensively in Monte Carlo transport simulations, 7,12 can be parametrized in terms of a single ionization threshold energy. A carrier in any state below the threshold energy is unable to initiate ionization, while a carrier in any state above it is.…”

Section: Influence Of Anisotropy On Threshold Softnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The rate of charge multiplication occurring in the simulation is affected by two factors: the process by which carriers are excited to high enough energies to initiate ionization, and the rate at which carriers that have gained sufficient energy actually ionize. In both these aspects of the calculation, the high energy nature of the process requires the use of realistic band structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Characteristics of impact ionization rates in direct and indirect gap semiconductors

Harrison

Abram

Brand

1999

Journal of Applied Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Impact ionization rates for electrons and holes in three semiconductors with particular band structure characteristics are examined to determine underlying factors influencing their qualitative behavior. The applicability of the constant matrix element approximation is investigated, and found to be good for the indirect gap material studied, but overestimates threshold softness in the direct gap materials. The effect that final states in the ⌫ valley have in influencing characteristics of the rate in the direct gap materials is investigated, and it is found that they play a significantly greater role than the low density of ⌫ valley states would suggest. The role of threshold anisotropy in affecting threshold softness is examined, and it is concluded that it plays only a small part, and that softness is controlled mainly by the slow increase in available phase space as the threshold energy is exceeded.

show abstract

Section: Influence Of Anisotropy On Threshold Softnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Influence Of Anisotropy On Threshold Softnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Characteristics of impact ionization rates in direct and indirect gap semiconductors

Harrison

Abram

Brand

1999

Journal of Applied Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Keldysh 15 obtained an analytical expression for the rate at which a carrier of given energy initiates ionization, which has been applied in several Monte Carlo simulations. 11,16 However the derivation of his expression is based on the assumption that the valence and conduction bands are spherical and parabolic, the band gap is direct and the matrix elements can be taken to be constant. In semiconductors whose band gap is sufficiently wide that the impact ionization threshold ͑the minimum kinetic energy a carrier must have in order to initiate ionization͒ lies at energies well above the band edge, these conditions do not apply.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To perform more detailed transport modeling, Monte Carlo simulation is commonly used. [11][12][13][14] However, the high energy nature of the process requires the use of realistic band structure, and the resulting numerical complexity requires intensive computational effort.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact ionization rate calculations in wide band gap semiconductors

Harrison

Abram

Brand

1999

Journal of Applied Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. An algorithm for calculating impact ionization rates in the semiclassical Fermi's Golden Rule approximation which is efficient close to threshold is presented. Electron and hole initiated rates are calculated for three semiconductors with particular band structure characteristics, as are the distributions of the generated carriers. Simple analytic expressions of the form RϭA(EϪE 0 ) P are fitted to the calculated rates. The role of the matrix elements in influencing the distribution of final states is investigated. In the direct gap materials, they act to significantly enhance the low-q transitions, while in the indirect gap case they have a lesser effect on the distribution. Results for GaAs obtained here and by several other workers are compared and possible causes of the discrepancies examined, including differences in band structure and approximations made in evaluation of the matrix element. It is found that these differences do not influence the rate sufficiently to account for the wider variation between authors, and so it is concluded that differences in the implementation of the rate integration algorithm are the main cause.

show abstract

High‐Field Effects

Hess

1999

Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Band-structure-dependent transport and impact ionization in GaAs

Cited by 291 publications

References 31 publications

Characteristics of impact ionization rates in direct and indirect gap semiconductors

Characteristics of impact ionization rates in direct and indirect gap semiconductors

Impact ionization rate calculations in wide band gap semiconductors

High‐Field Effects

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About